Army to help in rehabilitation phase

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has told army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani that the military would be engaged in rehabilitating flood-affected areas.

According to an official handout issued by the prime minister’s media office on Tuesday, Kayani briefed the prime minister about the army’s relief activities. Gilani told Kayani that the army would play a role in the rehabilitation phase for flood-hit areas, expected to begin later this year. Gilani and Kayani also discussed the overall security situation in the country, the statement said.

The army chief and the prime minister met amid political uncertainty and volatile security for the first time after the parliament approved a resolution last week, calling for “protecting and strengthening” what it described as an under-attack democracy.

Although experts have sounded warnings against assigning the military any role other than a “tough war on battle-hardened Taliban guerillas”, more than 50,000 regular troops are participating in the rescue operation.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2010.